Changing It To Fit
by Spoof-Fuzzy-Bwii
Summary: As Hinata lay dying, the only person left that Naruto truly cares about, he does something incredible. Now Hinata is given a chance to change the course of events to fit into her views on what should have been. Mostly Hinata's PoV NaruHina
1. Chapter 1

Title: Changing it To Fit

Chapter: 1 (Prologue)

Rating: T

A/N: I'm very displeased with myself. I have gone against my one core pet peeves and started this story while still engaged in another one. I apologize if I end up working on this one for a while instead of Once and Again, but I found it impossible to resist the temptation to start this story.

Summary: Hinata has a secret, one that no one would suspect. Becomes/is NaruHina; not your usual time-travel fic.

**And so begins my first Naruto fic.**

It was raining.

There was a lump underneath her back, probably a rock.

Somebody was crying.

She was cold, something warm was pooling around her.

There was a copper taste in her mouth.

Somebody was whispering to her now.

'Hinata, please open your eyes...please!'

Hinata. That was her name! All of a sudden, she could feel the pain. It penetrated her entire body, but it was centered around her abdomin.

'Na-naruto-kun...' She whispered.

'Hinata! You can't die, you're the only one left.' Naruto whispered brokenly.

'Naruto-kun...' she trailed off, her vision was going fuzzy.

The Sound had been resorting to guerilla tactics as of late and one by one, the Leaf was crumbling. Naruto and Hinata had been the only ones left of the Rookie Nine plus Team Gai. Kiba had been killed last week, there was only a small pocket of resistance left in the forests of the once prosperous Konohagakure no Sato. It was made up mostly of Chuunin like Konohamaru and his graduating class. Tsunade had fallen in battle some years ago, shortly followed by Jiraiya. Naruto had been named Hokage in Tsunade's will and had been acting as such ever since. Orochimaru had taken Sasuke's body as his own only a year before Tsunade was killed and it had been four years since then. There was a prosperous year after Tsunade's demise in which the war with Sound was looking to be in the Leaf's favor but it was not to be.

'Hinata. I love you, always remember that.' Naruto said brokenly as he hugged her slowly numbing body to his chest.

'Naruto-kun, I love you too.' Hinata said softly, then she began to cough.

Blood was dribbling down her chin. It was an uncomfortable feeling, she noted distantly.

She looked up at her love's face, his eyes were distant now as if he was having a silent conversation with himself. She realized he must be talking with the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

Hinata could remember when Naruto's secret had first gotten out. It was towards the end of Tsunade's funeral, an angry citizen had shouted that Naruto shouldn't be there and after angry questioning by Sakura, another citizen had let it slip. Naruto had gone white as a sheet and fled to the Hokage monument to hide. Hinata had found him there, standing over the carving of the Godaime with silent tears running down his face. She had told him that she didn't care and had in fact suspected as such after examining him with her Byakugan so many times in missions and the like. One by one, the Rookie Nine and Team Gai had come to Naruto and told him that it didn't matter to them. Through the next few days, civilians and ninja alike had confronted Naruto about it and while there had been some negative reactions, a majority of the population thought him a hero.

'Hinata. I'm going to do something very stupid.' Naruto announced quietly, startling her out of her memories.

She looked at him, her breathing was slowing and she could feel her heart skipping beats as it struggled to keep what was left of her blood flowing through her body. All it accomplished was to send more out through the wound in her abdomin, she thought to herself. It was odd, the thoughts that came to you before death.

Naruto started to focus chakra into something. Hinata was coherent enough to discern what anymore. Right before she finally slipped into unconsiousness, she heard Naruto whisper again that he loved her.

She was floating. That was the only word to describe what she felt. It was all that she could recall ever doing or feeling, this floating feeling. All she could see was black, though her eyes might have been closed so that would explain it. Eyes? What were those? Deep blue. That is what she thought of when she contemplated these...eyes. Blue? Ah, a color. Where had that come from? She could not remember the color blue, only that it was precious to her in some way.

Then, she was falling. Then, she remembered.

Hinata sat up in bed with a start. She could taste copper in her mouth, she'd bitten her tongue badly and a small line of blood was falling down her chin. It was oddly familiar to her dream.

_'Hinata.'_

She whipped around, coming face to face with a mirror.

'_Hinata, it wasn't a dream.'_ A voice said.

Her eyes widened, not a dream? Impossible.

'_No, it's very possible. Naruto and his tennant made it so. Remind me to hit him when next we see him.'_

"Wh-who are y-you and w-why can't I see you?" Hinata said aloud.

_'I am you. You saw my last moments on my earth, didn't you? You know sort of what happened. Naruto did something to me, to us. I'm now just a voice in your head, you have my memories but it's mostly as if I had gone back to the past and into my younger self except now you have the bonus of a voice in your head.' _The voice, the other Hinata said.

Hinata sat heavily on her bed. This was a lot to take in for a seven year old child.

_'Though you have my memories, your future memories, you don't know how to use them. I will merge with your personality very soon, you wont stutter anymore and you will have the intelligence to go with the knowledge I have given you. Don't ask how I knew that just now either, I think it might have something to do with being dead for a few minutes before Naruto-kun worked his jutsu.' _

"Na-Naruto-kun? D-do you mean th-that boy F-father said to s-stay away from?" Hinata asked the voice in her head.

'_Ah, yes. That horrid prejudice is still circulating in the village. No matter, Naruto is a good kid. As you should know from my memories. Though it will take months for you to assimilate all of them so it's not surprising that you don't know about him yet.'_

"What d-do you m-mean?"

The voice sighed, _'I mean that it will take time for all of my memories to be accessible to you. Right now you can 'remember' up to about a month from now. Though everything will doubtlessly change because of your foreknowledge. Again, I haven't the faintest idea how I know that. I stand by my being dead theory.'_

Hinata thought she could get to like this voice, her future self?

'_Enough talk for now. It is very late, you should go back to bed. I'm willing to bet that most of the memories will manifest themselves as dreams from now on. I expect that as you 'dream' or 'remember' more, the process will accelerate because of your increasing intelligence due to them. Though 'I' will cease to exist it won't really matter because you will have all of my or your future memories. Ah...this is so confusing...get to sleep, I don't want to think about this anymore tonight.'_

Hinata nodded and yawned. She was very tired still, the moon was high in the sky so it was very late. Hinata crawled back into her bed and slowly drifted off to sleep and into her dreams.

**Dream Sequence**

_Hinata saw herself sitting next to her mother, they were talking quietly about Hinata's becoming a ninja. Her mother was saying that she didn't have to if she didn't want to, a few short weeks later her mother died of an incurable illness. Her father was pressuring her to be a ninja now, he was saying things like 'It's your responsibility to the clan, Hinata!'. Thus, a little Hinata started at the ninja academy with everyone else that year._

**Dream Sequence Kai**

Hinata awoke slowly, she blinked her pale eyes slowly and rubbed the sleep from them with one hand as she sat up.

'_...You are progressing faster than I had thought. You covered about five months in that one dream...it will go slower now though. You now know of the simpler times, when things were peaceful...'_

The Hinata in her head trailed off and Hinata wondered what she meant by that but decided not to pry. Her questions would be answered soon anyway.

**TBC...**

I felt it was as good a place as any to stop. Though I had originally wanted to end it right after Hinata 'died'. It was far too short, now it's in the thousands.

Drop a review, they feed me and keep me writing faster.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Changing It To Fit

Chapter: 2

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I do own anything that is mine...such as this plot idea since I've never seen it around. It's always 'Naruto has gone back in time' or 'Naruto and Sasuke have gone back in time.' I've yet to see a 'Hinata goes back in time' story. This will be the disclaimer for the story.

A/N: I've just posted the first chapter and already I've revised it and added some more memory sequences. Go back and read the memory parts if nothing else.

A/N2: A few days later, I realize that the 'let's remember five years at once' bit wasn't working for the end of the last chapter. So instead, I changed it to five months and basically rewrote the last part of the chapter. -sigh- I don't know what Hinata's mom's name is. I'm just going to call her Hana for now, if somebody tells me otherwise...well, I'll probably still call her Hana because it follows the 'h' trend. (ie: Hiashi, Hana, Hinata, Hanabi)

Warnings: Hinata will be OOC. Naruto will be OOC. Sasuke will be OOC. Ino and Sakura will be OOC. Kyuubi will be OOC.

Questions: How old was Hinata when the cloud-nin attempted to kidnap her? About how old was Sasuke when Itachi went nuts? That is all. (I always have trouble remembering those two things. I'm thinking Hizashi should already be dead...but I don't think Itachi should go nuts for another year or so yet...yes. Never mind, I've answered my own questions and come to a conclusion on what's going to happen in regards to those things. I'm keeping this bit here so I won't forget about it when I need it.)

Key:

"dialogue" -- speech

'_dialogue' _-- future Hinata and/or Kyuubi speaking

'dialogue' -- thoughts

**Let us begin...**

Hinata sat down abruptly as a realisation came to her; her mother was going to die. Soon.

_'I'm sorry my dear. It's true and there isn't a thing you can do about it.' _The other Hinata said firmly.

Hinata shook her head in denial, "No! Kaa-san c-can't die!"

_'It is meant to be Hinata. Kaa-san dies of an incurable disease, even if it were caught early it wouldn't matter. It's known as 'Konoha Fever' because the patient's temperature skyrockets out of control. This is Fire Country and temperatures, as you know, can exceed 110 degrees. If it makes you feel better, Kaa-san dies quickly. She doesn't suffer and the Fever sets quickly. Even in my, your future there is no cure. Not that I know of anyway.'_

The seven-year-old's eyes began to tear up, her mother was going to die of some native disease and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. As tears spilled down her cheeks, the Hinata in her head warned her of one thing, '_My dear, you must not withdraw because of this. I know you are rather shy right now but, as you will find out soon, it will increase ten-fold. It gets to be so bad that your concentration is effected. Things like that could get you killed as a ninja, and let me tell you right now: you won't have a choice once Kaa-san dies. Tou-sama is adamant about your becoming a strong ninja, after Kaa-san dies he demands it. Don't let his demands and Kaa-san's death limit your strength Hinata. It was one, if not the biggest mistake I ever made.'_

Hinata sniffled, she was still devastated to learn of her mother's fate but to her it seemed like several months ago now. She had the memories of it now and it would be odd to see her mother alive and well for the next few weeks.

All of a sudden, her door opened and a branch member told her that Hiashi had said it was past time to be up and about.

----

Hours later, Hinata sat in a small garden located in the Hyuuga complex. She sat on a stone bench overlooking the Koi pond, she did not sense the person coming up behind her until it was too late.

"Hinata-chan!" Her mother said from just behind her.

Hinata jumped a foot in the air and grasped at her chest, "Kaa-san! Don't do that!"

Hyuuga Hana grinned at her daughter, Hinata hadn't stuttered at all in that sentence!

"Ah my little Hinata-chan, how are you this fine day? You looked to have a lot on your mind there, staring so hard at the fish." Hana said as she swept her daughter into her arms.

Hinata hesitated for all of two seconds before flinging her arms around her mother and whispering, "I love you." into the fabric of Hana's yukata.

Hana looked surprised at her eldest daughter who was often a shy and reserved girl, she usually showed her effections in a more subdued manner. Hana grinned again and tightened her hold on Hinata. Who was she to complain if her daughter was coming out of her shell?

"Hinata-chan, I love you too."

They sat there like that for a while, Hana holding her small daughter in her lap while Hinata was content to be held by arms that she knew would not be there in a month.

----

"Hana, you know how important it is that the clan head be a ninja. Stop being unreasonable." Hyuuga Hiashi said with the barest hint of strain in his voice. They had been having this argument for months. Hana didn't think that they should pressure Hinata to much, her argument was that since Hanabi seemed to want to be a ninja anyway then they should let the burden fall to her. Hiashi said that no self-respecting Hyuuga Clan Head would depend on his or her subjects completely for protection. Hana would suggest that maybe Hinata could become a med-nin instead, Hiashi would shoot that idea down as well by stating that such training was for branch members only.

"Hiashi! I can't believe you want to force your daughter to go through years of extreme training just because you are to stubborn to admit that maybe it's not a bad thing for Hinata to choose an alternate path! You know how timid she is, you know that she doesn't like to hurt things too. I can't see why you are so set on this!" Hana's voice, unlike Hiashi's, was woven heavily with frustration.

"Hana. It's not just me, the Hyuuga elders will through a fit if she doesn't follow to strict code. If she were to become a medic, she would be forced to take the caged bird seal because the elders enforce such rules very firmly. It is, admittedly ultimately my choice, but they have substantial sway with the whole clan and could therefore set up a coup of some sort. I don't want our daughter branded with that seal." Hiashi's voice had dropped to a low whisper as if he expected someone to be listening. Indeed, it had happened before.

Hana's eyes softened, but she remained firm in her arguments for the rest of the night.

----

That night, Hinata's dreams picked up where they had left off, she was able to see three months worth of memories before she woke and the other Hinata said that she was now progressing as expected.

_'Hinata, I'm not sure how fast this will happen anymore. It was supposed to take about three years but it could take considerably longer or considerably less amounts of time. I'm not sure if I'll disappear or not when they are finished. I'm not sure if I mightn't disappear before they even finish. I can feel myself fading, but I don't know what that means.' _

Hinata was silent. Whatever happened, with the new memories she had acquired she was most definitaly going to make an effort to befriend Naruto-kun this time around.

----

The rest of the month continued on in much the same fashion. The gaining of memories had slown so much that Hinata was only gaining one month every two days. The older Hinata was puzzled, this wasn't as it was supposed to happen.

Finally, the day came when Hyuuga Hana came down with the Konoha Fever.

"Kaa-san. What's wrong?" Hinata asked as her mother grabbed onto a banister for support. Hinata knew what was happening now, her mother's skin looked flushed and she was sweating to much.

"I...I don't know Hinata-chan...I think...I think I'm going...to...fain..." Hana fell to the floor in a dead faint before she could finish her sentence.

"KAA-SAN!" Hinata shouted in alarm. She knew that this was the end for her mother and she had now come to accept that. (Only after many a late night talk with the older Hinata however. Hinata had still been adamant about attempting to find a cure until older Hinata pointed out that it would be futile because it would rend the rest of the memories useless.

Immediately several people came running.

Later that night, Hiashi left his wife's sick room with tears falling silently down his face. The next morning Hinata was informed she would be starting at the Ninja Academy in one month's time.

----------------------------------------------------

TBC...

That's all I can crank out tonight guys, sorry. I'll try to update before Friday, but I'll be pretty beat because we've got MCA (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment) tests tomorrow and Wednesday. Wednesday I've got martial arts, and Thursday will probably be my recoup day. Again, we'll see.

Any questions? Review them to me...-hinthint-

Ah, and thanks to all who reviewed the first chapter. It really means a lot to know my work is liked by some.

BTW, this story is written by Spoof.


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Changing It To Fit

Chapter: 2

Rating: T

A/N: Hmmm. I know exactly what's going to happen this chapter. It will be long. Probably in the two thousands for a word count. I really want to finish this story quickly so I can get my muse for Once and Again back. He's gone and hidden under a rock in fear of my muse for this story apparently.

Thanks to all who reviewed, you keep me motivated and Kudos to the person who guessed what was going to happen.

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Hinata's progress in the Ninja Academy was phenomenal. She never performed very well in front of her father so he thought that she was just book-smart. That was true, but she was also developing into a strong kunoichi early on. Her mother had died a year ago today and Hinata was visiting the Hyuuga graveyard with a bouqet of sunflowers; her mother's favorite.

Hinata was 8 with the knowledge of her 12-year-old self. The speed of which the memories had been coming continued to fluctuate and the 'other' Hinata hadn't a clue why. It was supposed to be that they would come at a steady pace of two months to every night until she reached a certain stage at which it would slow to about 1 week per night. It had fluctuated so much that sometimes she would see one month and sometimes she would only see a few minutes.

Another thing was that Hinata had learned to partition the memories away from her mind, she could look at them now as if viewing someone else's life but still gain all the knowledge of techniques she had learned in the future.

One thing that both Hinata frowned at was the Uchiha Massacre. Hinata didn't believe that Sasuke deserved such a thing to happen to him, even if he did some stupid things later on in life. She didn't know yet if she wanted to do anything about it, but she would have to decide within the week. Sasuke as he was now was a rather sweet person in her opinion. She didn't want to see that sweet side of the boy be buried under his need for revenge on his brother.

Hinata had managed to form a shaky, but most importantly secret friendship with Uzumaki Naruto. If her father found out, Hinata was sure she would be forbidden from ever talking to Naruto-kun again. Naruto, at such a young age, was still as he had always been; cheerful, resilient, proud. Naruto was really rather smart at that age, Hinata discovered. He had to be, to evade angry mobs and to play some of his more impressive pranks. Many people thought the blond to be stupid, this was not the case. He simply acted stupid to fool those that had reacted negatively when he did something obviously intelligent. When he'd been found reading a moderately complicated scroll on chakra techniques one day it had taken all he had to escape the angry/scared mob that had chased him. Thinking that he would become a threat to the village at such a young age.

Hinata scoffed at these people to herself. If anything would turn him against the village, it would be the anger and the open hatred that was shown to him every day of his young life. It was a miracle that Naruto had remained so dedicated to the village in the future.

Hinata no longer stuttered, it was not because of the memories she was recieving, but because of the other Hinata in her head whom acted as an older sister. The older girl was very frank with Hinata, telling her over and over that she should not withdraw because of her mother's death. Then she started to give Hinata little bits of advice on her homework or how to act in a situation. Eventually Hinata had come to see the person in her head as a source of wisdom. It was with a heavy heart that the girl realised with every passing day the voice in her head got softer. They both knew it would not be long before the older Hinata disappeared.

(From here, I will refer to older Hinata as 'Hina'.)

Hina only hoped that she could at least give her knowledge to her younger self before that happened. It would be crucial to protecting the village later on, Hinata had already vowed to keep Hina's future from ever happening. She would do anything to protect her loved ones from the sad future that currently awaited them. Hina thought it was rather impressive conviction for the once timid child.

Presently Hinata was stuck. She knew that she liked the kind and determined Sasuke she knew now and didn't want to see him end up the soulless container of Orochimaru that Hina often told her about. Though all of the memories may not have been passed on, that did not stop Hina from speaking frequently of them.

Her dilemma was that she didn't know of anything that could prevent the massacre. It came down to whether she really wanted to save at least some of the Uchihas or not. No matter what, Hinata and Hina knew they would end up attempting it. It was against their nature to allow something like that to happen. So Hinata sat in her room that night with the intent to form a plan. It was not going very well, from what Hina knew, Itachi had killed his friend Shisui in order to move on to the highest known level of Sharingan; Mangekyou. He could only reach that level if he killed his best friend. Early plans included attempting to warn Shisui, but Hinata realised that she didn't know who he was, wouldn't be able to find out in time, and the likelyhood that he would heed the warning of an eight year old was very slim.

Hinata clenched her fists in frustration. She didn't know what she could do for Sasuke beyond be there for him in the aftermath! It was infuriating to know what was to happen and not be able to do anything about it. No one would believe her even if she were to tell them about Hina. There were, of course, ways to determine whether she was telling the truth but Hina doubted Hinata would be taken seriously enough to have anyone even think to use them.

The next day at the Academy, Hinata went out of her way to talk to Sasuke and make friends with him. He smiled at her, it was the only time she had ever seen such a pleasent expression on his face. The last time she, or Hina had seen him was in her last moments. Orochimaru had been the one to strike her down in that last fatal raid on the few Konoha-nin left. The evil snake had possessed Sasuke's body just as he said he would. Not to say that Hinata hadn't come into contact with the child Sasuke a few times in her time at the Academy. She'd just never gone out of her way to become friends with him before. It was surprising how friendly the Uchiha could be.

"Hinata-san, are you alright?" A voice said, drawing her from her thoughts.

"Hai, Iruka-sensei. I was just thinking." She replied, her pupiless eyes unblinking as she continued to stare at the wall.

"Please try to do so out of class Hinata-san." Iruka said ruthfully.

The class snickered, Hinata blushed.

"Hai, Sensei."

Iruka nodded and went back to explaining chakra.

Hinata noticed that Naruto was asleep next to her. She frowned and jabbed him in the side, they had agreed that he wouldn't sleep through class for a full week and she would buy him some ramen on Friday.

"Naruto-kun! Wake up!" She whispered loudly.

"Ne...Hinata-chan, five more minutes..." He grumbled softly.

She glared at him and nudged again, "Naruto-kun, don't forget our deal."

Naruto just grumbled. It was a blessing Iruka hadn't noticed them yet.

Hinata sighed and used a method guarenteed to wake Naruto up no matter what.

"Naruto-kun, ramen has been banned from Konoha forever, Ichiraku has gone out of business."

That got his attention.

"WHAT?!"

Iruka stopped talking immidiately and glared at Naruto, "Something you would like to share Naruto?"

"Eh...no?"

"He simply couldn't believe all that you can do with chakra Iruka-sensei, right Naruto-kun?" Hinata said innocently.

"Heheh, right Hinata-chan." Naruto said nervously.

Iruka glared at them suspiciously and asked, "If that's true, then you will know that I was just talking about how chakra can be used to call elements into Jutsu. Name three of the elements I listed."

"Fire, water, and air." Naruto replied instantly. He may not pay attention in class, but could often be found pouring over scrolls that Hinata had provided from her clan library.

Both Naruto and Hinata were very literate for their age, Hinata because her father demanded it and Naruto because Hinata demanded it.

"Very well...I expect you to keep quiet next time though Naruto." Iruka said sternly, giving them his glare of Doom.

"Hai Iruka-sensei!"

Iruka went back to listing different elements that jutsu could be used with. Naruto actually decided to pay attention after Hinata glared and silently reminded him of their deal, and Hinata went back to thinking.

Days later, Hinata could say she was proud of her progress with Sasuke. They were friends to the point where he had invited her to his house. Hinata accepted readily because she really did like her new friend and wanted to meet his parents. Being in the same house as Itachi would be scary, but she thought she could handle it.

Naruto had gotten jealous when she'd told him of her budding friendship, but he accepted it when she told him she would introduce them and Naruto could have another friend because of it.

"Ne, Hinata-chan I can't wait until you come over tomorrow!" Sasuke said exuberantly.

"Yes, Sasuke-kun. I'm excited as well." She said, smiling at him.

Over the last few days, Hina had focused on imparting knowledge more than memories on the young girl. She knew her time with Hinata was limited and had begun to prepare the girl for her leaving and for the difficult times to come. Hinata knew all of the techniques Hina had learned and come up with up to _Shugohakke Rokujyuu Yonshou._ She hoped to learn ever more that night, Hina was planning on giving her as much knowledge of techniques and battle as possible over the next week as that was how much time she estimated that she had left.

It was Friday, the day that Hinata had promised to buy Naruto ramen. She had had enough sense to put a limit of two bowls on the ramen nut and though he pouted, he accepted what she gave him.

"Hinata-chan, you are going to Sasuke's house tomorrow, right?" He asked in between mouthfuls.

"Hai, I am going to meet his family and play at his house." She replied, eating her single bowl of miso ramen slowly.

Naruto glared at the counter for a moment before, "Hinata-chan, you aren't going to replace me are you?"

Hinata gaped at the blond. She hadn't thought he would think something like that! She sighed, sometimes it was so easy to forget that this boy hadn't had any friends before he had met her and he still only had acquantences accept for her. She impulsively hugged him but pulled back quickly when she realised what she'd done. Despite being older mentally and more mature, Hinata was still a shy little girl at heart.

"Of course not Naruto-kun!" She said with a blush, "I would never dream of replacing you!"

Naruto smiled softly and reached over to hug her this time. Her blush intensified and she stuttered a little bit before he pulled back.

"I'm glad Hinata-chan."

----------------------------------

"Come on Hinata-chan! Kaa-san is waiting to meet you!" Sasuke shouted as he ran ahead of her and into his house.

"Hai Sasuke-kun, I'm coming."

Hinata removed her shoes and entered the home calmly. It was a nice house, she thought. Traditional, but it had a nice lived in look. Hinata knew that it was Sasuke's mother who had brought this about in the otherwise strict looking household.

"Kaa-san, this is Hyuuga Hinata-chan! Hinata-chan, this is Kaa-san!" Sasuke said excitedly.

"It's nice to meet you Uchiha-san." Hinata said.

"It's nice to meet you too Hinata-chan, I'm glad that my Sasuke-chan is making friends." The woman responded with a smile.

Hinata smiled back, Sasuke's mother was a very nice woman. Hinata looked around the room and realised there were more people than there should have been in the room. There was Sasuke's mother and father, his brother Itachi, and a baby in a high-chair.

"Hinata-chan, this is my aniki Itachi and my Tou-san. The baby is my new sister Hebi." Sasuke said as he pointed to each person in turn.

Inside Hinata's mind, Hina was sputtering in astonishment.

_There's not supposed to be a daughter in this family! _Hina exlaimed.

'Well, there's obviously one now.' Hinata thought softly as she smiled at the baby who had begun to coo as she saw Hinata.

Itachi was staring at her with an unreadable expression. She stared back calmly, though inside she was sweating. This was the boy who would soon kill his whole clan. Hinata looked away, her eyes were beginning to mist over again.

"It's nice to meet you all." She said softly, an odd note in her voice as she refused to look up.

The rest of the day was spent playing with Sasuke and his baby sister. Hebi was a very cute baby, or toddler as Hinata learned that she was already almost two. Hebi had the typical Uchiha look, black hair and black eyes. She was always smiling and she could say 'Kaa-san', 'Tou-san', 'Tachi', 'S'ske' and 'no'. The last was cause for much frustration sometimes, Hinata had learned, but over all Hebi was a sweet child.

When Hinata returned home, her own sister was in the presence of their father. He doted upon her as she showed much more promise than Hinata did, in front of him anyway.

"Tou-sama, I'm home." She called softly.

"Welcome Hinata. Hanabi was just asking after you, I believe she wants to have a tea party with you and Neji."

Hinata smiled lightly, Neji had opened up to her a little bit. He was still bitter and such, but he had developed a soft spot for Hinata and her sister. It was their father that he didn't like.

"Yes Tou-sama. Come on Hanabi, let's go find Neji-nii-san."

Hanabi bounced over to her and started to babble excitedly as they left the room.

Hiashi considered his eldest daughter carefully. She showed so much promise but refused to use it practically. The girl go good grades at the Academy but he had yet to see any truly impressive performance out of her. He could only hope that Hanabi grew up to be more like a real ninja.

-------------------------

A week later, everything happened at once. Word reached the Hyuuga compound that somebody had massacred a majority of the Uchiha clan. No one knew yet who'd done it and how, but speculation was that the eldest child of the clan head had gone beserk.

That night was the night that Hina dissappeared.

Hinata wept that night. For Sasuke, and Hebi, and all of the Uchihas. She wept because she had lost her sister figure, and she wept for the future that she hoped never turned out the way it had.

In the days that followed, it was found that not only had Sasuke survived but his younger sister Hebi as well. Before Hina had gone, she had given Hinata the last of her jutsus. Hinata only had the memories up to the point where Naruto returned from his trip with Jiraiya but Hina had hoped that would be enough to help change everything to fit what they both thought the future should have been.

Sasuke didn't show up to the Academy for nearly a month afterwards. When he did, he was withdrawn and ignored everyone. Gone was the quiet, sweet little boy he had been. Replaced with a much more familiar withdrawn attitude. Hinata knew that he was starting down his self-appointed path of an Avenger once again.

"Ne, Naruto-kun." She said quietly, "I think that Sasuke-kun really needs friends right now."

"But he's ignored everyone that's even tried to look at him Hinata-chan, how are you going to talk to him?"

"We. We are going to talk to him. We're going to follow him around and talk to him until he cracks. I don't care if it takes all day, all week, all month, all year. Sasuke-kun needs friends and I want to be one of his friends. Promise you'll help Naruto-kun, I don't think I can help him alone." She whispered as she watched Sasuke sadly.

Naruto was silent, he was looking at Sasuke too. "Hai, Hinata-chan."

With that, the two walked over towards Sasuke with a purpose. They would not give up until Sasuke talked to them at least once.

"Konnichiwa, Sasuke-kun. I'm sorry for your clan." Hinata said.

"Yea, we're sorry. But you can't just sit here and mope about it!" Naruto said loudly.

Sasuke glared at them both, but his eyes softened when he looked at Hinata. He did not speak to them however.

"Sasuke-kun. You have to talk to us. We won't leave until you do." Hinata stated firmly.

He remained silent.

"How is Hebi-chan doing? Was she hurt?" Hinata asked.

Sasuke twitched.

"Oh. I hope she's okay then." Naruto said, able to tell from the look on Sasuke's face that Hebi had indeed been injured.

Hinata could see something brewing in Sasuke's eyes. She pressed on.

"Sasuke-kun, I know you are sad right now. But you can't let what he did effect you so much. I know your family is gone, but you've still got Hebi-chan. Your mother wouldn't want you to be sad like this. I don't know about your father, but I don't think he would either." Hinata said as she watched Sasuke's reaction.

That was apparently it, "How would you know?! Aniki...no, Itachi killed them and you didn't even know them very well! They probably hate me...I couldn't do anything to save Kaa-san! She told me to run when I got home, I saw him kill her and I couldn't save her before he did it! He was going to kill Hebi too, but Anbu-san saved her before he could do it! I watched the Anbu fight Itachi and get killed to save us, Itachi threw Hebi at me and I dropped her, she wasn't moving. He looked at me, I saw his eyes Hinata-chan. He told me to become strong and come and kill him for revenge. He said that I should hate him...but...Hinata-chan, I don't hate him. I don't! He's my Aniki...Hinata-chan, why would he do it?!" Sasuke whimpered. Hinata was glad that no one was in the training field by the Academy just then. She didn't think Sasuke would want anyone but her to hear this.

Naruto watched on in silence. He didn't want to interupt the Uchiha, he could see that this was helping him.

"Sasuke-kun. It's okay, Hebi-chan is still alive, ne? You still have a part of your family left. I don't know why Itachi would do this. Something is wrong with him Sasuke-kun. Something is wrong with his head, it's not your fault he killed them. You couldn't have done anything...shhhh, it's okay." Sasuke had latched onto her and was sobbing brokenly. She knew he needed this. She hoped that Hebi being alive would help him stay off the path that led to being a souless husk housing Orochimaru's mind.

Behind her, Naruto was silent. He watched his friend comfort Sasuke and was thankful that he had someone like her for a friend. His Hinata-chan was the most amazing person he knew. He resolved to help her help Sasuke and...Hebi?

As Hinata comforted Sasuke, stroking his hair and murmuring soft words, she looked up at the sky and saw sunlight was spilling past the clouds that had attempted to cage it. It was a breathtaking sight.

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TBC...

Leave a review? I know it's been a long time but bare with me. I'm trying to keep up with school right now. Among other things...I'll probably update twice more before school ends, then I'll have the whole summer to work on my writing. Updates should come faster then. Until then, leave a review? Contsructive criticism is much appreciated. If you didn't like my story then I don't know why you are reading to chapter 3, that said any flames at this point will be heartily laughed at and shared among my group of friends to be laughed at again.

Push that pretty lavender button please. It's really quite simple.

-Spoof


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Changing It To Fit

Chapter: 4

Rating: T

A/N: Wow, 18 reviews on one chapter! I'm astounded...I guess this is a better story than I had thought? -shrug- Or perhaps it was just a good day to update. Either way, thanks for all the reviews guys.

Thanks to Lionhart, an anonymous reviewer who left me a page-long review. It was very helpful and gave me a few more quirks to add to the plot. Most of what you said had occurred to me already, the medic bit with Naruto I hadn't thought of...nor the battle tactics part. I had intended several things but they are not to be revealed in an author's note. I'll be writing them soon enough. Also, I see what you mean by 'more harm than good'...heh. 

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"Naruto-kun, I'm going to visit Sasuke-kun and Hebi-chan. Do you want to come with?" Hinata asked after the door to Naruto's apartment had been opened by said blond.

"Sure Hinata-chan. Just wait a moment while I water my plants."

"Hai."

Hinata sighed. The last four years had been difficult on her. Her father still thought she was a talentless sop. He had recently been setting Hanabi against her in an attempt to either motivate her to work harder or to find an excuse to make Hanabi heir instead. Hanabi showed a lot of talent in the Hyuuga arts and wasn't afraid to show it. Hanabi had gained an arrogant attitude thanks to Hiashi and her relationship with Neji had died when she threatened to use the Seal on him. 

Naruto had shown a lot of progress outside of the Academy. He still thought that it was worthless, that thought was only proven in his mind when he told Hinata that he already knew everything being taught there anyway. Hinata had to admit, with all the reading and training they had been doing it was pretty boring. Of course, listening to someone teach something you'd known and been using for a few years could get dull real fast.

Sasuke and Hebi had been watched over by nannies in the Uchiha Compound. Sasuke would do his best to scare them away and once Hebi turned three and was aware of her brother's actions, began to copy him. Sasuke was still hell-bent on killing Itachi. Hinata was sad that he was still on his Avenger's path, she knew what had happened to him at the end from stories that Hina had told her. Hinata had hoped that by giving him support and friendship early would have swayed him from his 'ambition' but her hopes had died. Hebi was a happy six year old however and Hinata enjoyed playing with her. Sasuke was still friendly with her and Naruto after he'd offered his friendship. He did tend to brood a lot and was usually cold to anyone not on his list of friends and family.

The three trained together often in the beginning, Hinata would bring scrolls from her library and they would read together. Hinata had 'found' a scroll on tree climbing and water-walking which she had 'left at home' but she had already perfected the exercise and so began to teach the boys.

Hinata smiled, watching Naruto glare daggers at Sasuke while the dark boy was standing vertically at the top of a tree was funny. Especially after the blond had proven his inability to do the exercise as easily as the Uchiha by rocketing away from the tree a few times.

About three days after that Naruto had mastered the tree climbing exercise and then proceeded to beat Sasuke in learning the water-walking. Sasuke had brooded for a month afterwards.

They'd also been working on learning some medical jutsu together after Hinata had 'dreamed' that she'd died of a stomach wound with no med-nin to be found for miles. Sasuke only tried half-heartedly when it came to this and usually left as early as possible when he found out they were practicing such things. He'd taken to training on his own of late.

Naruto was ecstatic when he found out that he could perform small medical jutsus as the scrolls they learned from said that it took a lot of chakra control. It was supposedly his worst area in the Academy.

"I'll show them!" He would often say.

Hinata excelled at medical jutsu, she could use her Byakugan to see minute details of the human body. She'd bought Naruto a book on human anatomy for his last birthday when he'd commented on how it would come in handy. She also was good with herbs, she could make a bruise balm imbued with chakra so that it was 60 percent more effective.

Naruto had, on his own, befriended Shikamaru and Chouji. He could be found playing shogi, cloud watching, and eating barbecue with his two friends nearly every weekend. He was still a chronic prankster, though most people didn't know it. Naruto had developed a stealth technique all on his own to help him pull off pranks on a whole range of nin. From Hokage to Academy student, no one was safe from his pranks. Only the Hokage and a handful of Jounin could catch him in the act, much less evade his prank on them all together. Oiroke no jutsu had been born nearly six months ago when Naruto had discovered that a majority of male nin were closet perverts. He had declared to Hinata that he would 'come up with the ultimate secret weapon against perverts'. Hinata had only smiled, remembering Hina's memories of the infamous Oiroke no Jutsu.

For some reason, Naruto still had an issue with a regular Bushin. As far as Hinata could tell, there was something interfering every time he tried to gather the chakra for that technique and _only_ that technique. It was a mystery, even to her powerful Byakugan.

Hinata, no matter what her father thought, was an amazing kunoichi. She had worked hard those four years to perfect her Jyuuken style, along with the techniques Hina had developed for it. In the increasingly frequent bouts with her sister, Hinata still never won. She didn't see the point in putting to much effort into a fight to satisfy her father's petty wishes. He wanted a strong heiress? Well, he was just going to have to wait until she was good and ready to reveal her exceptional talents!

They left Naruto's apartment building and ran across rooftops to Sasuke's house in the Uchiha district. Sasuke, as was typical of him, was training. Hinata knew that he wasn't going to stop anytime soon so her and Naruto spent the afternoon playing ninja with Hebi. Sasuke came in and asked them if they were still on for training tomorrow and Naruto threw a chair-cushion at him.

"You were just training teme! Take a break for once!"

Sasuke just shrugged. They ended up having dinner their, and Naruto walked Hinata home disguised with Henge. (Hinata knew that Hiashi still wouldn't approve of the friendship...Naruto went disguised as Sasuke more often than not as Hiashi had encouraged Hinata to interact with the Uchiha.)

"Goodnight Hinata-chan!" He said, waving vigorously at her.

"Oyasumi nasai Naruto-kun."

------------------------------------

"Yea! Go Hinata-chan! Kick Sasuke-teme's ass!" Naruto shouted.

Hinata shifted her weight slightly and bent backwards to avoid a round house to the head and quickly closed a tenketsu in Sasuke's leg. He grimaced and jumped back, shaking his leg to rid it of the shocks. She didn't give him enough time to recover and ran towards him quickly, getting ready to send a double-palm strike to his arms. He blocked one, but the other connected. His left arm hung next to him, unable to channel chakra for the moment.

He jumped back again and sighed, "Alright Hinata-chan, I give up for today. You win, now fix my arm!"

Hinata smiled at him, then laughed when he glared half-heartedly at her. "Hai, Sasuke-kun."

When his arm was functional again, Hinata announced that they would be practicing medical jutsu again. As soon as Sasuke heard that, he made an excuse about having to pick Hebi up from a babysitter. Hinata pointed out that Hebi had no babysitter and Sasuke just shrugged and ran.

Naruto chuckled, "He really doesn't like to practice our med-jutsu, ne Hinata-chan. I don't know why, it's fun!"

"He's more interested in learning how to defeat..._him._ You know that, Naruto-kun."

"Hai, hai. I know, but that doesn't mean he can't try something else for once!" He said as he stretched out on the grass.

Hinata hummed in agreement and stretched out next to him.

"Naruto-kun, do you think you'll pass the exam tomorrow?" Hinata asked.

Naruto was silent for awhile.

"I don't know Hinata-chan. I will so long as they don't make me try a Bushin because we both know how _that_ goes. Maybe they'll use Kawarimi this year?"

Hinata shook her head sadly at him. The final exam was _always_ a Bushin. Testament to this fact was the other two exams that Naruto had failed. He had discovered that you could take the test up to two years early if you really wanted to so long as you got permission from your guardian. Since Naruto technically didn't have a guardian, he'd signed the permission form himself. Hinata had known that the final tests would be on Bushin and so hadn't bothered to ask Hiashi. Not only was he more likely to scoff and then scold her for asking, but she didn't want to pass without Naruto if Hiashi did happen to say yes.

"Naruto...you know the final test is always on Bushin..."

Naruto sighed and nodded sadly.

"I know Hinata-chan. I'm just trying to be optimistic, ne?"

Hinata sat up and shrugged, brushing grass off of her as she talked.

"You never know Naruto-kun, perhaps there is an alternate way to pass?"

"Maybe." Naruto mumbled, then he shook himself. "Aren't we supposed to be practicing medical jutsu? Let's get to it!"

-----------------------------------------

That morning, early-birds had woken to find graffiti covering the Hokage monument. No one knew who had done it, except for Sandaime but he found it too amusing to say anything. It was the morning of the Academy tests. Hinata knew that Naruto had done it because he was worried over the outcome. Iruka walked right into a piece of clear plastic with a sticky substance on it when he entered the Academy. He had no way to prove that it was a student either as other Academy Instructors had been known to play pranks on testing days as a way of lightening the mood for the students.

As Hinata exited the exam room with a shiny new hitai-ate, she frowned and shook her head to Naruto who slumped in his seat. A short time later, Sasuke exited with a leaf forehead protector as well.

"Uzumaki, Naruto!"

Naruto reluctantly rose from his seat and slunk across the room. He slowly pushed the door open and then closed it, then stood awkwardly in front of Iruka and Mizuki.

"First I want you to throw ten shuriken and ten kunai at the target across the room." Iruka said promptly.

Naruto did so and managed to end with a cluster of kunai and shuriken in the center of the board. Iruka made a note on his clipboard.

"Next, I want to see a Henge. And not that despicable jutsu you created either. A real Henge of anyone you want."

Naruto formed the seals and molded the chakra, one puff of smoke later and there stood a female Naruto...fully clothed. She winked, smirked, and blew a kiss at Iruka and Mizuki before puffing back to Naruto.

Iruka grumbled before grudgingly nodding his head and making another note on the clipboard.

"Finally, we want to see three fully functional Bushin." Mizuki finished for Iruka.

Naruto cringed.

"Ano...Iruka-sensei...I..." He was cut off by Iruka.

"Naruto, you have to do this to pass."

"...Hai."

He took a deep breath and carefully formed the seals. He could already feel the chakra being suppressed but continued none-the-less. One poof later and there were four dead looking zombie-Naruto clones lying on the ground pathetically.

Mizuki winced.

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but you fail this portion."

Naruto just slumped forward and sighed. "Hai."

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"Naruto-kun...I'm so sorry." Hinata said to him quietly.

"Ne...it's okay Hinata-chan!" He said, pasting a grin onto his face, "I'm happy you passed. Where did Sasuke-teme go?"

"He went home. I don't know why, I would think he'd want to celebrate this with us...oh, I'm so sorry Naruto-kun!"

Hinata threw her arms around him as he sat dejectedly on the single swing.

"It's okay, really. I just want to be alone right now..."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Hai."

----------------------------------------

Mizuki watched the exchange between the two friends. He was relieved that the demon child had failed the test. He'd been worried for a while that the dead-last would pass the test on par with the Uchiha. That brought some questions to mind, how had the fox brat gotten so good seemingly over night? Had he been holding back in the Academy? It didn't matter...he had failed and now Mizuki had his pawn.

"Oi, Naruto-kun. I know of another way you could pass the test...you could maybe even be on the same team as your two friends. Hinata and Sasuke, right?"

Naruto perked up immediately, "I'm listening..."

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A dark figure moved through the halls of the Hokage tower.

'A large, important looking scroll, ne? Sounds kinda fishy...especially me having to steal it in the dead of night and all...' Naruto thought to himself.

"Naruto...what are you doing in this room?" The voice of the Hokage said quietly.

Naruto 'eeped' and quickly used his Oiroke no Jutsu to incapacitate the old man. (He'd found a pile of dirty books in one of his desk drawers when he was younger, so he knew it would work on Sandaime.)

As the Hokage was propelled backwards due to the force of his nose-bleed, Naruto made his way towards a scroll that fit the description he'd been given. He hefted the thing onto his back and whispered a quiet 'Sorry Old Man'.

His target acquired, Naruto ran off towards the forest as swiftly and silently as possible.

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I was going to add another scene for the forest encounter, but I have school in the morning and would like to go to bed. I think 2.5k in words is good enough for tonight. I hope to have another chapter written by the weekend but we'll see how that goes. Only three weeks of school left! Yay!

Review please? It's not hard...all you have to do is push that beautiful lavender button.

NOTE: This is an unedited version of this chapter. It may or may not be replaced by a better version at a later date.


	5. Chapter 5

Title: Changing it to Fit

Chapter: 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!

A/N: I did indeed take OaA down. I'll repost it after some serious revisions are made to the chapter content and the outline itself. I'd like it if reviewers could point out any major plot-holes I may have accidentally made. Along with any huge grammatical/spelling/punctuation errors. I'm not good with dialog so keep an eye on that because there'll probably be some huge problems with that. I'd really appreciate it!

Anyway...

**On with the show...**

"_Kage Bushin no Jutsu_" Naruto voiced softly as he concentrated on keeping the flow of chakra under his control. He was weary of this jutsu as its title bared a disturbing resemblance to the jutsu that was the bane of his ninja career. In fact, the only difference he could see between the two was that this made a tangible clone instead of an illusion. To his surprise, several clones poofed into existence.

"Wow! That wasn't hard at all! With the way Mizuki-sensei went on about this task being so difficult, I would've thought I'd need a few _days _to learn this!"

Naruto stood in the middle of his group of clones, pondering on why this had come to him so easily. He new a few jutsu, but hardly any of them had come as easily as this one had. That was especially odd since he seemed to have such a huge issue with regular bushin...

"I wonder where Mizuki-sensei is...he said he'd be here soon." Naruto wondered allowed. He studied the clones of himself for a bit longer as the talked amongst themselves before shrugging and rolling the scroll open to the next technique.

---------------(suggestions for some cool technique(s) that Naruto learned from the Forbidden Scroll would be apprecieated)---------------

Hinata was worried about Naruto. She had gone to his apartment after a meeting with her father in which Hiashi had congratulated her in his own cold Hyuuga way. Naruto hadn't been there, she'd even used the spare key he gave her to unlock the door and look around inside. No sign that he'd even come home after the Tests that day. It was then that a flash of memory hit her like a 2x4 and she stumbled and fell onto a bench in front of the apartment complex that Naruto lived in.

---Flashback---

_"He really did that Naruto-kun?" An older Hinata asked._

_"Hai, he really did. The bastard tricked me into stealing the Forbidden Scroll right from under the Sandaime-jiji's nose! That's how I learned the Kage Bushin, graduated from the Academy, and learned of Kyuubi all in one fell swoop." An older Naruto had replied._

_Hinata had sat there staring into space for a moment before her friend and sensei Anko had arrived and roughly fell into the the chair next to her. They were in one of the jounin lounge rooms. It was  
_

_"What's gotcha so startled Hinata-chaan?" Anko asked loudly, drawing out the 'a' in 'chan'._

_Naruto answered for her, "Nothing Anko-sensei, we were just recounting some of the more...interesting moments of my Academy days."_

_The snake-woman smirked, "I remember when I met you two! You were a loud-mouthed brat...your blood tasted sweet that day. Hinata-chaan here was just a shy little thing! I'm so glad I got a hold of her!"_

_Hinata smirked at her part-time sensei, "Yes, it's a good thing you beat up my father in front of me and the whole clan and then turned around and told me that he was a stuck-up asshole and that I should move in with you as a favor to a friend so you could train the shy disposition out of me. My father still shudders is someone draws out there s's for too long."_

_Anko smirked back, "Yep! And no, I'm not going to teach you my super special torture genjutsu until you can beat me without your special clan crap!"_

_Hinata pouted at her sensei before turning to Naruto who had been attempting to leave unnoticed by the two psychotic women and said, "Where do you think your going my Naruto-kuuun? I didn't say you could leave me yet..." _

_While she spoke, she'd gotten up and begun to walk slowly towards him. He smirked and suddenly disappeared with a puff of smoke and Hinata went back to pouting, "I knew letting him learn that jutsu was a mistake...now how will I ever keep him where I want him?"_

_Anko smirked at her, "You're on your own with this one deary, I swore off men a long time ago for a reason!"_

_----_End Flashback----

With wide eyes, Hinata realized where Naruto had disappeared to. She then cursed his future self for never telling her _where_ exactly he'd run off to hide with that scroll...

------------------------------------Techniques please? I'm at a loss as to what he should learn...an amazing medic-jutsu or two? NO MOKUDON PLEASE!------------------

"No! Naruto, don't give him the scroll! Mizuki is a traitor!" Iruka shouted to him. Naruto was confused, Mizuki-sensei had lied to him?

"Ha! If you won't give me the scroll I'll take it from your dead body!" Mizuki threw several kunai and shuriken at Naruto who was frozen in shock, his mind attempting to catch up with the situation. A moment ago he had been practicing with another jutsu from that scroll when Iruka had suddenly rushed into the clearing and started yelling at him followed shortly by Mizuki. He jumped away at the last second and Iruka relaxed a little bit. He didn't stay relaxed for long however as Mizuki began talking again.

"Naruto, do you know that the whole village knows a secret that you don't?"

A secret? He wondered to himself.

"I can see the curiosity in your eyes, shall I tell you?" Mizuki said with a sadistic grin on his face and a slightly insane glint in his eyes.

"No! Shutup Mizuki!" Iruka shouted somewhat hysterically.

"Ah, the one who pretends to accept you but really he **hates** you! Because of this secret, because you are the reason he has no parents!" Mizuki continued, despite Iruka's continued shouting at him to stop.

Naruto looked from Iruka to Mizuki, a feeling of dread building in his chest. Did he really want to know? It didn't matter because Mizuki was about to reveal the thing that would clarify Naruto's past and change his future.

"The reason the villagers hate you, the reason Iruka secretly hates you is that you are the Kyuubi no Kitsune! The demon that killed hundreds and among those hundreds, Iruka's parents!"

Naruto's thought process totally froze at this revelation. Before either man could do anything, he turned and fled into the forest.

Mizuki smirked in triumph while Iruka watched place Naruto had stood in horror. Mizuki was about to pursue Naruto when Iruka spoke up angrily. "Mizuki, why did you have to tell him that?"

"Because it is the truth. Now if you will excuse me I have a demon to kill and a scroll to steal!" Mizuki made to run after Naruto when Iruka threw a kunai at him. He dodged and Iruka said, "Not before you get passed me you won't!"

Mizuki continued to smirk and sped off into the forest as his accomplice threw a windmill shuriken at Iruka's back. He heard Iruka shout as the weapon made contact and his accomplice soon joined him in his pursuit.

As they were running, Mizuki suddenly spoke up. "I no longer need you."

Before the nameless man could process what he'd said, Mizuki moved behind him and thrust a kunai into the base of his skull. Thus severing the spinal cord and insuring the man's death bye suffocation/asphyxiation due his heart and lungs being paralyzed.

'Damn you...' the man mouthed at Mizuki as he died.

Mizuki never saw the mouthed words, he was long gone after Naruto.

Naruto meanwhile, was sitting in a tree thinking things over. He quickly realized that this would be something to tell Hinata, no matter what her reaction since she would most likely already suspect something. She was perceptive like that. He also realized that Iruka probably didn't hate him. That part was Mizuki attempting to psyche him out so that Naruto would be easier to kill, or so he told himself.

Iruka made his way towards where he figured Naruto would be but quickly caught site of Mizuki so instead henge'd into Naruto to attempt to trick the traitor. It worked to a degree, until Mizuki realized the trick and began taunting Iruka about Naruto and generally insulting everything and everyone Konoha. Revealing his whole plan in the process.

When Iruka told the story of his Academy days Naruto, who had been in a tree surrounding the area Mizuki and Iruka had stopped in, revealed himself and shouted back at Mizuki that he wouldn't let him touch Iruka.

"What can a dead-last genin like _you_ do to stop me?" Mizuki taunted.

"You want to see what this dead-last can do? Well, _watch!_" With that, Naruto formed a familiar crossed seal and shouted his soon-to-be favorite technique.

"_Tajuu Kage Bushin no Jutsu!_"

The clearing was suddenly much smaller as one-thousand Naruto clones filled it and began brutally beating Mizuki to within an inch of his life. Once all of the clones were dispelled, Naruto walked over to Iruka and asked if he was all right.

"Yea, I'll probably have a pretty new scar in a few weeks, but I'm fine otherwise..." Iruka said ruefully as he winced, "Naruto, come here and close your eyes."

Naruto did so. He felt something being tied around his head, but dared not believe that it was what he thought it was. It wasn't as if Iruka carried spares around with him...

"Okay, open!" Naruto did and saw a headband-less Iruka in front of him, "You graduate! That was an amazing display of Kage Bushin!"

A bright sunny grin spread across Naruto's face as he latched onto Iruka's middle, "Thank you!!!"

Iruka winced but smiled, "How about some ramen later, to celebrate?"

Naruto just nodded against his favorite teacher in the whole world.

In the trees, a pair of ANBU watched the scene with smiles behind their masks. They could wait for a few minutes to bring in the traitor and the scroll, ne?

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The next morning, Iruka's classroom was full of rowdy preteens waiting for their teacher to arrive. Hinata sat alone next to the wall in the back with no one around her. The others could sense the dark cloud around her and she was visibly moping. That was, until a certain sunny-haired fox boy entered the room with his hitai-ate displayed proudly on his forehead.

Hinata practically leaped down from her place in the elevated fourth row and tackled Naruto to the ground.

"Naruto-kun! Where were you?! How did you get that headband?" She asked him as she blushed and got back up, giving him a hand up as well.

"I'll tell you later Hinata-chan. Right now we have to listen to Iruka-sensei to find out our teams!" He said vibrantly.

Iruka entered at that moment and Naruto followed Hinata back up to the back row. A brief whispered conversation with Shikamaru over the authenticity of his graduation later and they were seated, Iruka shouting for everyone to be quiet. Sasuke was seated a row down and four seats over from where Hinata was out of respect for her bad mood but he now wished that she hadn't seemed so unapproachable as he was seated between his to worst fan-girls. Sakura and Ino were alternately glaring at each other over him and talking at him quietly while Iruka was making his speech about teams. Sasuke looked longingly up at his two friends, this quickly changing to a glare as Naruto smirked and stuck his tongue out at him.

The whole room was brought to attention again as Iruka finally got to the point and began assigning teams.

(A/N: I had a big long debate with myself as to how to do these teams. Switch Hinata and Sakura? Or not? Ultimately...oh, and if I mixed up team 8 and team 9...oops? I'll fix it later if I did.)

"Team 7 will be Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, and Uchiha Sasuke! Team 8 will be Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji, and Nara Shikamaru! Team 9 will be Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata, and Aburame Shino! Your jounin senseis will be here shortly." Iruka finished.

Hinata and Naruto shared a sad look while Sasuke contemplated the merits of braining himself with the desk as Sakura just kept squealing in delight. Ino was glaring at everything that was moving and plotting Sakura's death while everyone else appeared to be fine with their team assignments. Though Shikamaru could be heard muttering 'troublesome' over and over again.

Asuma and Kurenai arrived to pick up there teams at the exact same time and had in fact been enjoying a conversation on interrogation tactics while walking together.

Kurenai took her team to training ground 9, Hinata followed her sensei quietly. When they arrived at their destination Kurenai had them sit in a half-circle in front of her.

"Okay, my name is Yuuhi Kurenai, I will be your jounin instructor until you are all deemed worthy of graduating to chuunin level or you are transferred to another team. I like to practice my genjutsu, talk to my friends, and sing karaoke. I don't like perverts, peeping toms, or people that underestimate the power of genjutsu. My dreams for the future are to be a good teacher to you three and to perfect as many genjutsu as possible. Now, I want you three to tell me you names, likes and dislikes, and dreams for the future. Starting with you, Hyuuga and moving on to the left."

"I am Hyuuga Hinata, I like learning medic-jutsu and training with Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun. My dislikes are people that underestimate me, and anyone who thinks badly of Naruto-kun. My dreams for the future are to...well, I can't tell you in case the elders find out. I've another however, to help Sasuke-kun defeat a man."

'Interesting,' Kurenai thought.

"My name is Inuzuka Kiba and this is my dog Akamaru," Here Akamaru barked, "we work as a team! My likes are my family, my dog, and learning family jutsu. My dislikes are a certain dead-last baka, when my sister takes the bathroom in the morning, and cats. My dream is to master all of the family jutsu and to become a jounin!"

'Typical sibling rivalry,' Kurenai laughed internally.

"Aburame Shino. My kikai bugs. People who dislike bugs and kill them for no reason. To surpass my father's level of skill."

'Hmm. Silent type, eh?' Allowed she said, "Alright, that's great. I'm going to give you a test right now to determine whether or not you will become genin."

"What?! I thought we were already genin!" Kiba shouted.

"No, your Academy tests were to filter out the rabble. To see if you could have any possible hope for passing the _real_ genin test. Now then. You have two hours to attempt to find me. If you do, you pass and if you don't then better luck next year!" With that, Kurenai made a hand seal and vanished.

"We need to work together for this." Shino said, getting over the shock of their teacher's abrupt departure nearly immediately.

Hinata nodded, "Hai. I will use my bloodline to search for her, Kiba-kun can you have Akamaru search for her scent? And Shino-kun. Your bugs could track her?"

"Yep! My mom is always saying that the flaw in most genjutsu users is that they don't bother to cover up their scent!" Kiba reponded.

"My bugs can sense her chakra. But it is dispersed. The best I can do is have them fan out and hope to run into her. Literally." Shino said with no inflection in his voice.

"Okay. Kiba, _can_ Akamaru pick up her scent?" Hinata said after activating her Byakugan.

"He can smell the direction she's in. Nothing specific...I bet she put a weak scent genjutsu on herself too!" He exclaimed after listening to his dog bark for a moment. He pointed to the south of them and Shino sent his bugs to sweep that part of the forest. Hinata lead the boys into the forest and began to search in earnest for any trace of their teacher. A few moments later Hinata spotted a chakra laden clearing ahead of them and told Shino to concentrate his bugs there.

The whole clearing was layered with chakra, she saw. Shino sent his bugs swarming from one end of the clearing to the other, slowly working from the ground up to find their errant teacher.

Finally after fifteen minutes of searching the rather large clearing Shino tapped Hinata on the shoulder and pointed to a branch midway up a tree on the far side of the clearing. Hinata nodded and motioned for them both to follow her. They reached the tree and she tried to dispel the genjutsu but it resisted. After a brief discussion all three soon-to-be genin sealed and voiced 'kai'. The illusion dispelled to reveal Kurenai clapping for them.

"Good job. That took you three about 45 minutes from start to finish to find me hiding in a mid-level chunin ranked genjutsu. For green genin that is impressive. Congratulations Team 9, you pass your real Genin Exam! Meet here at 8:00am tomorrow morning for your first mission." After finishing her speech, she disappeared to report to the Hokage.

Naruto was still waiting for his teacher two hours after Iruka had left. He had fallen asleep at one point until Sakura had noticed and begun screeching about disrespect. Naruto had countered that argument with the fact that their sensei was already an hour or so late but she wasn't having it. So he had sat in and waited some more. He'd talked some with Sasuke but Sakura seemed to be giving him death glares whenever he so much as looked at her beloved Uchiha. Now Naruto was reduced to selecting the dirtiest eraser from the chalk tray and perching it in the door for their tardy sensei to enjoy when he or she finally decided to show up.

Sakura scoffed at the silly prank. "Like a jounin would fall for something as stupid as that, Naruto-baka!"

"Well, if he does then he's not a very good jounin is he? He mustn't be if he can't even keep track of the time!" Naruto responded just as the door opened and a chalk-laden eraser fell with a puff of chalk dust onto the head of one Hatake Kakashi. Much to all three genin's amusement.

"Well, my first impression of you guys is that...I hate you. Meet me on the roof." He finished as he poofed away.

"I really hafta learn that..." Naruto grumbled.

On the roof, several minutes later found Naruto and Sasuke glaring at their as yet unknown sensei while Sakura glared at Naruto and made googly eyes at Sasuke.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi, I like a few things and dislike a lot of things. My dreams are none of your business. Now you go pinky." He said, gesturing to Sakura.

She glared at him but went through with her introduction. It involved a lot of giggling and blushing and it is best to not mention it at all. Basically all that was learned was that Haruno Sakura was a fangirl to the bone and the unfortunate object of her obsession was Sasuke. All Kakashi could think was 'Jeez...a fangirl.' and roll his one eye.

"Next, you blondie." Kakashi prompted.

"Uzumaki Naruto, I like ramen and Hinata-chan, oh and Sasuke-teme I guess. I dislike the three minutes it takes for ramen to cook and people that underestimate me or hate for no good reason. My dream is to become Hokage and prove to the world that I'm worth something...and to help Sasuke defeat his...demons."

'Hmmm...that's very interesting. I didn't think Sasuke would tell anyone about that.' He thought.

"Finally, you the Uchiha."

"Hn. I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I like training and...my two friends I suppose. I dislike my fangirls and weakness. My dream...my ambition is to kill a certain man."

'That's about what I expected. An avenger to deal with. So, a fangirl, a dead-last, and an avenger. If these three pass _my_ test it will be a miracle.' He thought, aloud he said, "Alright you three. Meet me in training field 7 at 8:00am and don't eat breakfast."

"Why not?"

"You'll through it up. I might as well tell you, this test has a 33 percent rate of failure." Kakashi poofed off of the roof and disappeared to do whatever it is that Kakashi does while alone.

"Sasuke, do you want to go on a date with me?" Sakura asked with stars in her eyes, the warning Kakashi had given filed into her mind with Inner-Sakura ranting away about it.

"No. Naruto, are you coming? We're supposed to meet Hinata-chan soon." He said.

"Hai, I'm coming. Bye Sakura-chan!" They both jumped across to the nearest rooftop and were gone.

Sakura slumped her shoulders and walked home, determined to try again the next day.

---------------------------------------------------------------

"Alright Naruto, how did you fail the test yesterday but show up today with a headband and a note saying you'd passed?" Sasuke asked as soon as they were far enough away from Sakura and the rooftop.

"I'll tell you once we reach our meeting place and Hinata-chan. Just be patient teme." Naruto responded, unusually solemn.

Sasuke nodded and hastened his pace, eager to hear the story Naruto had to offer.

"Where were you two?!" Hinata demanded as soon as they reached their spot.

"Our teacher has an atrocious sense of timing apparently." Naruto said dryly, "Now, don't you want to know what happened last night?"

Hinata and Sasuke both nodded quickly and they sat down in a loose circle to listen to Naruto's story.

Naruto told them the basics of what happened, mentioning before Sasuke asked that yes, he would teach them the jutsu he had learned from the scroll later. When he got to the part about the Kyuubi he only hesitated for a moment before diving into that part of the story as well. When he finished there was silence in the clearing and Naruto braced himself for the worst.

Hinata suddenly threw herself at him (for the second time that day, he noted absently) and hugged him. Sasuke joined after a moment of hesitation and said, "Stupid dobe, we could tell that you thought we would reject you after this. Baka, you won't be rid of either of us that easily."

"Sasuke-kun is right Naruto-kun. We are your friends, I'd go so far as to say your family. You can tell us anything." Hinata added as the group hug broke up.

Naruto gave them a watery smile, he hadn't noticed when tears had started to fall down his face but they had. He wiped them away and whispered a thanks to his two best friends in the world, his surrogate family.

Sasuke smiled a small smile at his adopted brother and sister. They had kept him from the darkness of his own mind and the images his older brother had made him watch over and over and he would be forever grateful towards them for it. He didn't know what he would have done without them.

Hinata smiled at her Naruto-kun. She knew just how much courage that had taken for him to do. He'd told them nearly as soon as he'd found out about the Kyuubi. She felt sure at that moment that she could prevent all of their bleak futures from ever happening.

In the Hokage tower, Sandaime watched the trio with a smile on his face. Whatever came at them, those three would go far.

From a tree, Hatake Kakashi watched the Uchiha survivor smile and be mushy with his two friends and felt that maybe Sasuke could be turned from his path as an avenger. He hoped so anyway. He shrugged and poofed away again, it wouldn't really be his problem if his team didn't pass tomorrow...

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End of chapter 5

Well? What do you think. Please feel free to give me constructive criticism, I thrive on it. I need suggestions for some jutsu that Naruto learned from the Forbidden Scroll. They can be made up for all I care, but no Mokudon or anything that would require some special circumstance for Naruto to know. (Like a 'hidden' bloodline or something.) Like the flashback that reveals a little of the future/Hinata's past? There will be more where that came from, just not yet. Obviously. I believe I've just written another 4000 word chapter for this fic. If not 4000 then damn close to it.

Review? It's a beautiful shade of lavender, you know you want to gaze at it and then eventually press that gorgeous button just down a few pixels and to the left...


	6. FULL Chapter 6

Title: Changing It To Fit

**Full chapter 6!! I'm continuing the story! :D**

A/N: Holy fudge! 30 reviews for the last chapter. -grin- I like that, let's make it a trend, okay?

Don't even say anything to me about Bri's 'Deathly Bowels' story…just, no. It makes me laugh, but honestly. -shakes her head-

One last note, I'm aware that I messed up the team numbers. I'm not really inclined to change it at the moment since it is such a minor thing. Also, I suck, at, commas, I know it, and, I'm working on it. (The excessive commas were intentional there...heh.)

One last-last note, I'm going to be using pure English from now on. All technique names will be in English, the only thing I will keep is the honorifics. (ie: -chan, -sama, etc.)

Disclaimer: What do you think? I wouldn't be writing a fic about it if I owned Naruto. I'm just…borrowing it.

* * *

Hinata batted at the irritating sensation on her nose. The thing obliged and stopped for all of two seconds before starting again, this time accompanied by masculine giggling. Hinata groaned and rolled over to go back to sleep in the warm grass...

Something tickled her side and she grumbled again, "'ruto...stopit."

"Wake up Hinata-chan, don't you want to hear how my test went?" Naruto asked gleefully.

She immediately sat up, "Okay, I'm awake. Tell me everything that happened!"

"Well, if you insist..." Naruto began.

* * *

Naruto listened to Kakashi absently, the only parts of his speech that registered was '...underneath the underneath...' and '...come at me with killing intent...'. Sakura had obviously taken Kakashi's warning about breakfast to heart. Naruto could hear her stomach growling loudly even over their teacher's rambling. She protested Kakashi's apparent death wish, only to be reminded that Kakashi was a jounin and she only a genin, as such there was no way she could kill him even if she tried her hardest.

Naruto listened with half an ear for a while longer, waiting for Kakashi to get to the point and running over his new jutsu in his mind. Finally, Kakashi said, "Begin!"

"Mass Shadow Clone Technique" Naruto called out as soon as he noticed that Kakashi had stopped talking. The clones all lept at Kakashi who had taken out a little orange book and was giggling periodically while countering all of the clones' attacks. Sasuke and Sakura dashed from the clearing, using Naruto's ruckus as a cover to escape and find good places to observe from.

"You'll have to do better than that Naruto-kun." Kakashi informed him lazily as he dispelled another clone.

"No problem!" Naruto shouted as he mentally ordered his remaining clones to regroup.

Two clones remained behind and baited Kakashi, staying just out of range to attack but asserting that they would attack if they saw an opportunity. The remaining Narutos conferred for a few moments before each removed four kunai from their weapon pouches.

"Take this! Mass Shadow Kunai Technique!" the clones shouted in unison as they threw their kunai at their teacher.

Kakashi calmly removed a kunai from his weapon pouch and blocked all the kunai that would have actually hit him. Naruto, despite being able to perform the technique, was not very accurate with it.

He cursed and vowed to practice with it later, but in the mean time, he and all but one of his clones charged Kakashi with a battle cry. The two that had been hanging back brought up the rear of the attack. They were all quickly dispelled, but the real Naruto released his kunai henge and made a grab for the bells. He missed, barely.

Deciding it was time to retreat, Naruto made a few more clones to distract Kakashi in case he decided to pursue, before dashing into the forest to hide.

* * *

1/31/08

I'm putting this story on an indefinite Hiatus. I am in my Junior year of highschool and have other things to worry about, this story is getting so hard to write. I don't know if I'll continue or not, but I actually have another story in the works that is nearly finished and so won't be so hard to keep up with. Come to think of it, I probably won't end up continuing. If anyone wants to take up this story, I'd be ecstatic. Just say so in a review and I'll be happy to put the link in my profile or something.

* * *

4/26/08

I think I might give this another try. I've gotten back into writing and find myself wanting to write the rest of this very badly. Sorry for the mid-chapter note, but it was there before and I've decided not to change it. I'm going to be trying to change my writing style for this story though. I want to get it finished up within 20 chapters so I'm gonna have to skip ahead a bit. Maybe there will be an abrupt surprise ending or something...who knows. But I want to hurry through to the chuunin exams in this chapter so any descriptions of missions will be brief at best. Even the wave mission will be brief since it will happen almost exactly the same way.

* * *

Hinata laughed as Naruto described the horrible technique that Kakashi had used on him, "Thousand Years of Pain". She remembered him grousing about that even a near decade after it had happened in the future.

She zoned out for a few moments, thinking about how some things seemed inevitable. Like the teams for example, some students had done better or worse this time around and the teams had remained the same.

Naruto was exclaiming over Kakashi's deception when he had left Sakura tied to a stump (she had done the least to get a bell) and told them not to feed her, only to come back and pass them for disobeying his orders.

"Your jounin-sensei sounds...interesting, to put it lightly." Hinata commented.

"That's one way you could say it." Naruto muttered darkly, "now then, tell me about your jounin-sensei!"

And so she did.

* * *

Missions passed in a blur for Hinata and Naruto, before they knew it a whole month had come and gone and Hinata could tell Naruto was getting sick of all the menial tasks that were D-Rank missions. Naruto threw his fit in front of the Hokage and was given a C-Rank for it. He'd gone to tell Hinata the great news and she'd remembered his future self telling her about the mission to Wave. She told him to be careful and to practice his medical skills a little extra on the way there before wishing him luck.

Hinata's team was given a C-Rank shortly after Team 7 left the village. It was a simple two day escort mission and nothing of any real consequence happened. They were attacked by bandits once, which was why their client had hired them in the first place, but they were quickly dealt with and hadn't posed much threat to begin with. When Team 8 returned, Team 7 still wasn't back from their mission to Wave. Hinata was left practicing alone for a week and a half before Team 7 finally returned, looking slightly beat up but otherwise okay.

Naruto continued to get better at his medical skills, though he would never be as proficient as almost anyone else in his age group could be due to his inability to control his chakra with enough precision for the more difficult jutsu. The both of them had expected this, so it wasn't much of a disappointment. Naruto could still use medicine the old fashioned way, and Hinata was good enough for both of them.

They were all nominated for the chuunin exams in the same week, foreign nin started to flood the village. Most specifically a certain team from Grass and another from Sand. Konohamaru and his friends had been bugging Naruto for a game of ninja all week and he'd finally relented on the condition that Hinata come too.

"Sure Naruto-kun. It'll be fun to play with Konohamaru-kun, Udon-kun, and Moegi-chan." She replied with a smile.

"Great, then get ready Konohamaru, you'd better run because the first game is hunter-nin and missing-nin!" Naruto shouted out before giving chase to an already fleeing Konohamaru.

Udon and Moegi looked at eachother and then at Hinata who had an uncharacteristically predatory grin on her face before dashing off in the same direction as their boss and his idol.

The game was progressing well, with both genin tagging an academy student and then being tagged back in turn, when Konohamaru ran into someone's leg with a loud thump and an 'oof!'.

"Watch where you're going you little runt!" A boy with odd make-up on growled down at Konohamaru before picking him up by the front of his shirt.

"Hey! You over there, let Konohamaru go right now! He didn't mean to run into you, what's your problem?!" Naruto shouted as he ran up to the boy holding the Hokage's grandson and a blond girl with a funny hairstyle and a giant fan on her back.

"It's none of your business, but this kid ran into me and that pissed me off. Someone is gonna have to pay or I'll be in a bad mood for the rest of the day! This runt is gonna get it!" Make-up boy yelled angrily.

"I wouldn't do that to the Hokage's grandson if I were you." Hinata said calmly, walking up behind Naruto with Udon and Moegi hiding behind her legs fearfully.

"Kankuro, stop it. If that really is the Hokage's grandson you could get us into a lot of trouble!" The blond hissed.

"Feh. Fine, the brat isn't worth it anyway..." Kankuro grumbled.

Something flashed into existence next to Kankuro and said, "Kankuro, stop it or I'll kill you."

"Y-y-yes Gaara..." Kankuro stuttered, sounding much less cocky in the face of the red head that had appeared. He threw Konohamaru at Naruto and backed away from the new boy.

"My apologies, he meant no harm. I am Gaara of the Desert, that is Kankuro, and that is Temari. We are here for the chuunin exams that are being hosted in your village." The red head, Gaara, explained in a slightly hostile monotone.

Sand began to swirl around the boy and Kankuro and Temari edged away from him. He had a crazed look in his eyes as he gazed at Naruto, "I look forward to spilling your blood in the exams. Kankuro, Temari, let's go."

And then they were gone. Naruto shivered and Hinata told Konohamaru corps. to go home for the day.

"I don't like the looks of that Gaara. He seemed almost..." Naruto trailed off, not sure what to say.

"Insane? Crazed? Blood-thirsty? I think all three are apt descriptions. These exams might be more interesting than I'd thought." Commented a voice from behind them.

Naruto and Hinata turned to see Sasuke standing slightly behind a small decorative tree on the side of the street. How they hadn't noticed him before was beyond them but he appeared to have been there for a long time.

"You bet they're gonna be fun!" Naruto crowed, "I can't wait to kick your ass Sasuke-teme!"

"Psh, in your dreams dobe." Sasuke smirked.

Hinata sighed as another argument broke out between her two best friends. Lately they'd been arguing more and more, it was exasperating, but it was the way they bonded. Hinata knew that they were almost as close as brothers, especially after the Wave mission where Sasuke almost died. After that mission Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura had all thrown themselves into training. Even the usually pathetic pink-haired fangirl had laid off her crush on Sasuke and been training just as hard if not harder than the boys on her team. Hinata had been surprised when the girl had come to her for help with training. Now the silly diet Sakura had been on was in the past and she ate three meals a day instead of one. Hinata had convinced her that it would be more rewarding to train more and eat more, all it had taken was a hint that Sasuke liked strong kunoichi to light a fire under the girl.

Sakura was another person that had changed from Hinata's memory of her at this time. Unlike last time, the girl kept her hair in a long braid down her back with spiked wire concealed inside after her hair had been used against her in a spar with Hinata a week prior. She couldn't bring herself to get her hair cut, so it had been a compromise. Anyone wanting to grab her hair now would suffer the consequences.

* * *

The day of the chuunin exams arrived and things went as they had last time. Lee and Sasuke got into a fight after it was established by Sakura that their was a genjutsu on the door and they were all really on the 2nd floor. Sasuke lost again.

Hinata and her team got there slightly before Naruto's team, but the nine rookies all stood in a small group at the front of the room near the doors. Ino attacked Sasuke with a squeal and a hug while Sakura started to rant at her about staying off of 'her' Sasuke-kun.

Kabuto showed up and showed them the stats of Gaara and Rock Lee, confirming that Gaara should be feared and that Lee was a highly skilled taijutsu user. The team from Sound attacked him for insulting their village and Ibiki slammed the door open demanding quiet.

Naruto was placed next to Hinata again, and managed to get three answers off of Hinata's paper before they both noticed a chuunin looking at them and writing on a clipboard. Naruto stopped after that and decided to bet on the tenth question.

Forty-five minutes later the tenth question was given. Naruto saw Sakura about to give up and slammed his hand down on the desktop. He proclaimed that he was going to be Hokage and that he would do so even if he was a genin forever. This boosted the confidence of everyone left in the room and no one else declined the tenth question.

Ibiki sighed and passed everyone left to the surprise and outrage of nearly every genin still in the room. There was shouting and protests before Ibiki shouted for quiet and removed his headband to show the room the scars he'd gotten under enemy torture. No one protested after that, and the Anko burst through the window.

* * *

Okay, that's all. I'll finish with the chuunin exams, finding Tsunade, and we'll see if I actually have Sasuke defect or not. He's got more ties now, so he may or may not.

I actually want to wrap this story up within 5 chapters. Maybe I'll see if I can do it by ch15. I know where I want it to end, it's getting there that's the problem.


	7. Chapter 7

Title: Changing It To Fit

Chapter: 7

A/N: Slightly shorter than my usual chapters, but I'm on a role actually. I just feel like this is a good place to halt this chapter and would like to get it out before 6am. I'll start on 8 and hopefully post it by Tuesday though I make no promises. Not beta'd, not really proofread, I'm too tired to care atm so this will have to do. Review please, if only to tell me you hate it. Reviews make me post faster, annoying begging for them be damned.

* * *

Hinata signed her waver calmly. It wasn't uncommon to have to sign something like this in the ninja world, they'd all had to sign one when they became ninja in the first place. Though the job came with free medical care at least; otherwise most ninja would be up to their eyeballs in debt over medical things. Ninja training alone could rack up a bill of several hundred when you lived under a regiment like Lee and Gai did.

The wavers were signed with a few grumbles and complaints, but once they were all handed in the snake woman known as Anko told them to go to a gate and receive a scroll. The rules were explained, and she wished them all a mocking good luck. They were then pointed to their gates and given the go ahead to enter the Forest of Death. Hinata wondered if things would play out the same this time...

* * *

On the third day Hinata and her team made it through to the Tower with two scrolls. She had seen no sign of Naruto and Team 7 which worried her. She couldn't recall the day or time that Orochimaru had attacked Sasuke, but she knew it was in the second part of the Exams. Naruto had said everything had worked out fine, but in later years he remembered that day regretfully as the day it all went bad. It was the day that Orochimaru got his fangs into Sasuke and the turning point in Sasuke's life that made him turn traitor. Hinata hoped that his friendship with them would help him through this point if things still happened as they had.

Her musings were interrupted as a flurry of conversation permeated the canteen where food was served in the Tower; another team had come in and they looked much the worse for the wear. Hinata rose from her place by Shino and Kiba to investigate. She activated her Byakugan to guide her towards the new arrivals, being able to see chakra through walls came in handy it would seem.

"...eak tried to bite him, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto was saying as she entered the room, "Oh, hey Hinata-chan!"

Hinata smiled at Naruto while inside she was wondering if what she had heard meant that Orochimaru had marked his vessel again, "How was the Forest Naruto-kun?"

"It was great! We got to fight some giant snakes and this Grass-nin tried to bite Sasuke-teme. I kicked him away and he me on the foot instead, it was really weird! I felt really dizzy for a second before I guess I passed out. I woke up when Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme were fighting off some Sound-nin and apparently I went a little weird and chased them away I guess. I don't really remember much of it but Sakura said she could see a haze of chakra around my body and I broke one of boys' arms easily after he tried to attack me. I want to find him and see if he's all right, she says it was pretty bad..." he trailed off, realizing he was babbling.

Hinata had stiffened when she heard that Naruto had been bitten, she would have to investigate the mark later under the pretense of seeing if he was alright. Even if he had been given the seal, hopefully the Kyuubi's influence would be enough to keep it in check or neutralize it all together.

"That's an interesting story Naruto-kun, could I see where he bit you? You applied a healing jutsu to it right?" she asked, expecting that he had forgotten.

"Eheh, I kinda forgot I guess." he said sheepishly, taking off his tattered sandal to show her the top of his foot where there was a faint tomoe mark. There was something off about it compared to the one she had seen on Anko and as had been described to her. It had four marks and was a crimson color that she associated with the Kyuubi's chakra.

"Interesting," she mumbled to herself.

Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke had been looking on in silence for the duration of their conversation but Kakashi chose that moment to intervene.

"What do you say we get you to a medic, eh Naruto?" he mumbled from his place in his book.

The mark still had puncture wounds around it, apparently the Kyuubi's healing wasn't working on them. Perhaps there was a poison in it that the demon hadn't encountered before? Hinata took a look at it with her Eyes and found that there was a mild poison surrounding the area but it shouldn't have effected Naruto's remarkable healing rate...she shook her head and performed a minor poison leaching jutsu and said, "No need, sir. I can't see anything wrong with his chakra. All I saw was a minor poison that apparently wasn't spreading or doing much of anything else."

Kakashi nodded, but insisted that he go talk with Naruto alone. Hinata nodded and turned to face Sasuke as the two left, "So Sasuke-kun, what happened while Naruto was unconscious?"

Sasuke shrugged and told her that nothing much had happened, he had had to carry the 'dobe's sorry ass' across the Forest to a safe place to sleep for a while. The strange Grass-nin had left them alone after staring at Naruto for a few moments and smirking. He and Sakura had set up a schedule for taking watch and he had gone out and gotten a few scrolls from especially weak teams. Naruto had been out for a day and they had two sets of scrolls when the Sound-nins attacked. Sakura held them off for a while, but Sasuke had been off on one of his scroll hunts and by the time he'd gotten back Naruto had already pretty much ripped someone's arms from their body. Sakura, who's hair was noticeably shorter, explained that she had been holding off the Sound-nins with some help from fellow Leaf-nins when Naruto had suddenly woken up to see her hair (which she had cut off to escape one of the enemy that had a hold on it) and ask who'd done it to her. She pointed and he leaped, it was over before she could really process much, "but he was surrounded by a visible, angry, red chakra that looked like flames."

Hinata mulled this over in her head and decided that whatever the Cursed Seal was doing, it was being either thwarted by the Kyuubi or the beast was using it to its and perhaps Naruto's advantage. She would monitor the movements of the chakra around the Shiki Fujin for the next few days to make sure the demon wasn't attempting to escape.

"Thanks for telling me this, Sasuke-kun, Sakura-san. I'm glad you all made it through." she said before leaving the room to see where Kakashi had taken Naruto.

* * *

"Ah, Kakashi-kun. I see you have sealed up my mark on the boy." Orochimaru sneered manically.

Kakashi tensed, finished with the sealing and no where near top form to fight off an enemy such as the snake-sannin. His hand inched towards his kunai pouch as he turned and kept his face impassive, "Of course I did, you expected for us to leave your taint unchecked in our village, traitor?"

The man laughed, "Of course not Kakashi-kun. Tell Sarutobi-sensei that if he cancels the Exams he will...regret it."

"Oh? What can one man, no matter your power or status, do to a village such as the Leaf?" Kakashi glared.

"You would be surprised..." the snake-like man whispered, his voice trailing off as he disappeared.

Kakashi cursed, where were the ANBU who were supposed to be guarding this room?!

* * *

"HYUUGA HINATA VS. HYUUGA NEJI" the board displayed.

Hinata grimaced, should she lose like last time? This time she knew she was far superior to her young cousin. Though he was older than her by a year or so, she had the skills and memory of someone twice his age and she could wipe the floor with him in Jyuuken and other forms of taijutsu, but the fight between him and Naruto in the finals had knocked her favorite cousin out of his 'fate' funk and she didn't see an easy alternative to that fight. Hinata sighed and resigned herself to a beating...if slightly less than last time.

* * *

"UZUMAKI NARUTO VS. INUZUKA KIBA"

A beaten, but conscious Hinata grinned at her teammate, he gaped for a moment, not used to such blatant displays of amusement from her. Then he grinned back and flashed her a thumbs up, thinking she was acknowledging he would win hands down. She was really grinning because she remembered the story he had told her in the future, complaining about Naruto's 'methods' for disguising his scent. Accidental or not.


	8. Chapter 8

Title: Changing It To Fit

Chapter: 8

A/N: heh, I'm just reusing documents in the document manager. I've been doing so since 6, I'll continue to do so until I finish. It's just easier that way, I hate uploading because my computer sometimes decides that it doesn't want to load the 'select document' screen and will freeze. Anyway, started this right after I posted 7, we'll see how long it takes to get it out.

A/N, sept. 4th: Wow, been a while since I was going to write this chapter. I think, since all my homework is done now, that I'll sit and do this chapter. Sorry for the (again) long wait. Hopefully I'll update more routinely now that school is in and I am looking for things to procrastinate with.

A/N, sept 7th: Now I'm really late. I'm updating tonight no matter how long it takes me to get a 3k chapter out.

* * *

Hinata reflected that some things never changed. Naruto would be fighting in the finals against Neji, first thing, once again. She smiled, though this time he didn't have so much of a reason to defeat the misguided Hyuuga branch-member. Hinata had given as good as she'd got in that fight, it just hadn't sat well with her to sit and take a beating the likes of which she had recieved before.

It turned out that now Naruto had a different motivation to defeat Neji, the boy had begun prattling on about fate and accepting ones lot in life without a fight in the beginning of their match as he had the last time, and it had enraged Naruto enough that he had begun shouting at the embittered boy at the top of his lungs. Not that this was surprising to Hinata, she had expected it in fact. Naruto was a person who had a cruel fate given to him almost from birth and he'd been fighting it ever since. To find someone who would calmly talk about how all he had done in the past twelve years of his life was pointless and that he should have submitted to fate (being angry and bitter, giving up his goals, and ultimately dying at the hands of some bitter villager) made him almost as angry as the boy beating on a defensless Hinata had before.

As it stood, that had been the icing on the cake and had pushed the past Naruto to further improve himself in a tremendous effort to defeat Neji, Hinata felt sure that Naruto would still do his absolute best to prove him wrong.

At the end of their fight, Neji had had something of a reality check and he was beginning to realize that there was something odd about his cousin, who was supposed to be extremely weak. So much so that she couldn't even beat her young sister.

"That guy really pisses me off..." Naruto mumbled beside her, taking a rare break from his month long training session.

Naruto was determined to beat Neji so soundly that the brunette would have to admit his mistake and take back the words he had said about fate and the futility of fighting it. On a certain level, Naruto could understand where Neji was coming from. Hinata had told him about the seal that was put on all branch members and thought it vastly stupid. Why anyone would do that to family was beyond him, but then he often thought that Hinata was the only sane Hyuuga among the whole lot.

Hinata smiled at Naruto's mutterings, he would frequently mutter about Neji. It was now two weeks before the Finals were to take place. Kakashi had apparently gone off to train with Sasuke (who had again easily defeated Yoroi) and left Naruto to be taught by a strange man named Ebisu who apparently thought himself the best instructor in the entire village. The man had lasted two days training Naruto before it became apparent to him that he didn't need his help. Naruto knew all the chakra exercises Ebisu had tried to teach him, and the one jutsu that he had taught him (Earth Style: Earth Wall) had been easy enough for the blond. A day after he had been shown the technique and the hand seals, he had it down enough that Ebisu couldn't break it with his strongest kick.

Bewildered at this show of skill and intelligence from the supposedly stupid prankster blond, Ebisu had pronounced Naruto already ready for the finals. Naruto hadn't accepted that, and had spent the better part of two hours in a shouting match with the man (it mostly consisted of screams of 'teach me, you damn pervert' and 'stop shouting that word outloud!') when Naruto finally got fed up with him and used his perverted henge harem technique to incapacitate the man in 'revenge'.

Since then, Naruto and Hinata had been practicing together as per usual and Hinata had been teaching Naruto a crude way to beat the Hyuuga Gentle-Fist style. It was simple enough, cover your body in a coating of chakra so that the weaker hits wouldn't penetrate and the stronger ones would do minimal damage. She told him that once he got good at it he would be able to summon chakra to whichever point of his body a Hyuuga was attempting to strike and make the protection infinitely more effective. She also promised that she knew of some special techniques that required the ability to cover oneself in chakra, assuring him that she would teach him after the Finals.

"How's this Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked, his entire body glowing faintly in the sight her Byakugan granted her.

Hinata lunged for him without warning and struck a blow at his stomach, she watched as the chakra covering his body coallesced to the one spot and completely deflected her blow.

"Very good, I think you have the hang of it now..."

Unnoticed by the two Gennin, a man with a white main of hair sat in a branch watching them. His eyes widened slightly as he watched the technique the blond used block a Hyuuga strike so effectively. This wasn't something he had ever seen before. The pair intrigued him; the both of them were far above the level of a normal gennin fresh out of the Academy. The Hyuuga especially seemed as if she knew what she was doing, and he frequently observed her pulling punches and glancing at openings and then pointedly ignoring them. It confused him, but also made a burning curiosity ignite in his belly.

The blond was no slouch either, and he also pulled punches and occasionally ignored openings in the girl's guard, though he speculated that it was more out of concern for his female companion than because he was potentially hiding anything. Both gennin paused in their spar (it had developed after the first initial strike, as the man watching had become enveloped in his own thoughts) and looked towards the tree he was hiding in.

The man cursed himself for letting the two youngsters sense him, but didn't really mind it. He had planned to reveal himself to them today anyway, so why not now?

With that thought, the man jumped from the tree to land several feet in front of the two.

"Who the hell are you?" Naruto asked rudely.

"Who am I? Who am I?? Why, I'm only the most amazing author of the best book series ever written, the infamous toad sage Jiraiya!" the man exclaimed, striking a pose.

While his introductory speech lacked some of its usual flare, the gennin both gawked at the strangely dressed man.

"You mean, Jiraiya, one of the third's old students and one of the legendary three?" Hinata asked.

"That would be right young lady!" Jiraiya exclaimed.

"I don't care who you are, what are you doing here? Me'n Hinata-chan were having a really fun spar before we sensed you watching in that tree..." Naruto glared.

"It just so happens that I've taken an interest in you and your female friend, brat. So show a little respect, I'm missing valuable research time to show you two a few tricks." Jiraiya shouted back.

Naruto's glare turned into a foxy grin almost immediately and Hinata laughed to herself at her friend's one track mind.

"So, you mean you're gonna train us old man?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"Hey, I'm not old...but yes. I have decided to bestow my superior training on you lowly genin, you should feel honored!"

Hinata was giggling audibly at this point.

"Bah, what would an old man like you know anyway." Naruto muttered.

Jiraiya sqwuaked a protest and grabbed the blond in a headlock before giving him a noogie, "Be greatful brat! Most people would kill to be in your shoes!"

As the two scuffled around in the dirt, Naruto eventually breaking the headlock and making as if to punch in retaliation, Hinata smiled and was relieved to know that things were still relatively on track.

She had been worried by the lack of Jiraiya in the last two weeks. As the old Naruto had told it, the pervert had showed up pretty much at the beginning of the month interval between tournaments. Hinata hoped that this time Naruto wouldn't be thrown off a cliff in order to be able to summon Gamabunta properly.

* * *

After Jiraiya began to train the two, they improved twice a fast as they had the previous two weeks. Naruto was having the time of his life, learning to summon toads and being able to spar with someone other than his teammates and Hinata. True, he lost every single time, but it was still a change of pace for the blond and he was eating it up.

Hinata however, was beginning to dislike the white haired sannin not because of anything he'd done, but because he was beginning to look at her suspiciously. She felt sure he would figure something out, or develop theories as to what was going on and as a result she would likely have to tell someone of her return to the past. Hinata knew she would have to eventually, and had planned for it soon after the sand-sound invasion. She was sure that the third would be able to hold off Orochimaru, and even if he couldn't she knew the secret to breaking the four point barrier the sound four would use to cage her Hokage in with his traitorous student.

When she thought about it, she still didn't know how Naruto had apparently sent her to the past. All she knew was that he had had something to do with it. If, for example, there was a technique in the Scroll of Forbidden Seals that he had used, it would solve many problems for her and make her story more believable. Hinata dreaded the interrogation that would follow her admission to being (at least partially) from the future. She often wondered why it hadn't really occured to her to go to the Hokage immediately but realized that he would probably have written it off as a little girl letting her imagination get away from her.

"Are you paying attention to this, Hinata?" Jiraiya asked sternly as he showed them both a taijustsu move.

He had insisted that she learn more outside of her clan style and though she already knew much more than that, she couldn't really demonstrate any other taijutsu to keep in line with her current self. Besides, what the pervert was teaching her was mostly new to her and she was eager to add more to her jounin-level repertoire.

"Sorry sensei, I was lost in thought." she replied.

Jiraiya huffed, the girl was odd sometimes. In addition to his previous list of odd activity, he now found that Hinata would drift into thought at the strangest times. He noticed that she would watch Naruto or himself sometimes, and while he could attribute her watching of the blond to a crush and himself to awe of a sannin, something in her gaze told him that was not the case. She would stare at the both of them with a look of intensity and determination, like she was reminding herself of a vow.

He shook himself, "Well, I'll show you again I suppose. Pay attention this time girl..."

The rest of the day went by smoothly.

* * *

With only half a day left until the tournament, Jiraiya was determined to see his male student summon the boss toad. He knew the brat could do it, he had enough chakra by himself, without drawing on Kyuubi, to do it. There was just something holding the blond back from summoning any toad larger than a horse. Jiraiya would try one last thing...

When Naruto arrived to the area they had come to use as a meeting place, Hinata wasn't there yet. Jiraiya knew the girl would throw a fit if she knew what he had planned and so breifly told Naruto to follow him before taking to the trees at a medium pace that Naruto could keep up with easily.

"Where are we going and why can't we bring Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked, mid-leap.

"Because, I'm going to show you a super special trick to summoning frogs and we'll be back probably before she even gets there...probably."

Naruto considered this, but couldn't see the harm in it. As long as Hinata wasn't left waiting for them for too long (even though she frequently had to wait for the both of them to show up in the mornings), she wouldn't be angry. And Naruto really wanted to summon the toad boss...he couldn't figure out why he was having so much trouble putting enough chakra into it, he usually put way too much!

They reached the edge of the forest and about twenty feet in front of them, a cliff dropped sharply and Naruto began to regret to agreeing to this 'special' training. He walked up to the edge to see how far down it went, when he felt a shove from behind and began toppling down into the chasm with an angry scream.

"I'm gonna kill you if I live!" he shouted up to his insane instructor.

"Stop wasting time talking brat! You'd better summon Gamabunta, he's the only one who will be able to stop your fall without you breaking at least three bones..." Jiraiya shouted down to his falling student cheefully.

Hinata reached the clearing just as the boys left it and got a bad feeling. She followed them closely and hid her presence so Jiraiya wouldn't notice. When she watched him push Naruto off the cliff, she gave an angry shout and burst from the tree line.

"You damn pervert, come here and let me push _you_ off a cliff!" she screamed at him as she distantly felt a surge of strange chakra and heard the echoing words 'Kuchiyose no Jutsu'.

"Hey now, it worked didn't it?" Jiraiya mused, pointing to the towering figure of Gamabunta in front of them.

* * *

A/N: There, I told you I would finish it and get it out on the 7th. This brings my overall word count up to 20k or so, and I basically made my goal. At something like 2.8k words and at 5.35am, I think I'm going to bed now.


End file.
